Tuesday, July 14, 2015

top ten tuesday: last 10 books that I acquired

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is "July 14: Last Ten Books That Came Into My Possession." I just did a huge book haul about three posts ago, so there will be some overlap from that post to this one, but I have gained a few new additions even since then.

1. The Heart of Betrayal – Mary E. Pearson – (spoilers for The Kiss of Deception) – Intrigue abounds in this hotly anticipated sequel to The Kiss of Deception!
Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save her life, Lia's erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar's interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.
Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: there's Rafe, who lied to Lia, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be barbarians. Now that she lives amongst them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country... and her own destiny.


2. Nimona – Noelle Stevenson – The graphic novel debut from rising star Noelle Stevenson, based on her beloved and critically acclaimed web comic, which Slate awarded its Cartoonist Studio Prize, calling it "a deadpan epic."
Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from Noelle Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel is perfect for the legions of fans of the web comic and is sure to win Noelle many new ones.
Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.
But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.



3. Me Being Me is Exactly As Insane As You Being You – Todd Hasak-Lowy – A heartfelt, humorous story of a teen boy’s impulsive road trip after the shock of his lifetime—told entirely in lists! Darren hasn't had an easy year. There was his parents’ divorce, which just so happened to come at the same time his older brother Nate left for college and his longtime best friend moved away. And of course there’s the whole not having a girlfriend thing.
Then one Thursday morning Darren's dad shows up at his house at 6 a.m. with a glazed chocolate doughnut and a revelation that turns Darren’s world inside out. In full freakout mode, Darren, in a totally un-Darren move, ditches school to go visit Nate. Barely twenty-four hours at Nate’s school makes everything much better or much worse—Darren has no idea. It might somehow be both. All he knows for sure is that in addition to trying to figure out why none of his family members are who they used to be, he’s now obsessed with a strangely amazing girl who showed up out of nowhere but then totally disappeared.
Told entirely in lists, Todd Hasak-Lowy's debut YA novel perfectly captures why having anything to do with anyone, including yourself, is:
1. painful
2. unavoidable
3. ridiculously complicated
4. possibly, hopefully the right thing after all.

  
4. Between the Notes – Sharon Huss Roat – When Ivy Emerson’s family loses their house—complete with her beloved piano—the fear of what’s to come seizes her like a bad case of stage fright. Only this isn’t one of her single, terrifying performances. It’s her life. And it isn’t pretty. Ivy is forced to move with her family out of their affluent neighborhood to Lakeside, also known as “the wrong side of the tracks.” Hiding the truth from her friends—and the cute new guy in school, who may have secrets of his own—seems like a good idea at first. But when a bad boy next door threatens to ruin everything, Ivy’s carefully crafted lies begin to unravel . . . and there is no way to stop them.
As things get to the breaking point, Ivy turns to her music, some unlikely new friends, and the trusting heart of her disabled little brother. She may be surprised that not everyone is who she thought they were . . . including herself.
Debut author Sharon Huss Roat crafts a charming and timely story of what happens when life as you know it flips completely upside down.
 



5. Tiny Pretty Things –  



6. Every Last Word – Tamara Ireland Stone – If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.
Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.
Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.
 


7. I Am Princess X – Cherie Priest –  Best friends, big fans, a mysterious webcomic, and a long-lost girl collide in this riveting novel, perfect for fans of both Cory Doctorow and Sarah Dessen; illustrated throughout with comics.
Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure. 
Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her. Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window. Princess X?  When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon---her best friend, Libby, who lives.

 
8. Lois Lane: Fallout – Gwenda Bond – Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy. 


 9.  Love, Fortunes and Other Disasters – Kimberly Karalius – In the tradition of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, one girl chooses to change her fortune and her fate by falling in love. 
Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love.
Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian.
Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?



10. Emmy and Oliver – Robin Benway – Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life. She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.
Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.
He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling. 
Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like the pieces of two different puzzles—impossible to fit together? Readers who love Sarah Dessen will tear through these pages with hearts in throats as Emmy and Oliver struggle to face the messy, confusing consequences of Oliver’s father’s crime. Full of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, these two equally compelling characters create an unforgettable story. 

Leave links to your TTTs below!!! 

xx
Sunny 
 

12 comments:

  1. So many good picks! I still need to buy The Heart of Betrayal, Between the Notes is also on my list! I'm really excited to read Every Last Word :).

    My TTT

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    1. thank you!! I am really excited to get to The Heart of Betrayal and Every Last Word especially. Those have been high on my TBR list for a while now :) thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Nimona's art style is the cutest *_* Really need a copy of my own! And "I Am Princess" has such a cool eyecatching cover, it looks like a movie poster. Don't even get me started on Love, Fortunes and Other Disasters! Where do you find all these beautiful covers?

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    1. I loved the art in Nimona, it was so engaging that I just couldn't stop turning the pages!! I'm such a sucker for covers, if something catches my eye then I am 99% more likely to buy it. It's really a sickness haha thank you so much for stopping by!!!

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  3. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on Louis Lane! Nimona was a really enjoyable read! Loved the art and the story. Love the cover of Between the Notes!
    Mallory @ The Local Muse

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    1. I'm kind of on a superhero kick right now, so I'll probably be getting to I am Princess X and Lois Lane soon, so I'll most likely post a review of it!! I also loved Nimona, I read it all in one sitting. Let's be honest, the reason that I bought Between the Notes was because of the cover! :)

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  4. Such a great haul Sunny! I can't wait to see what you think about Between the Notes and Tiny Pretty Things as those both have such intriguing and unique premises. :) And I just finished Emmy & Oliver a few days ago and really enjoyed it, so I hope you end up liking it as much as I did! Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous post! ♥

    ~ Zoe @ Stories on Stage

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    1. I'm reading Tiny Pretty Things at the moment and I have to say, I am completely sucked in! It's just something so different form anything that I've read before! I am really really looking forward to reading Emmy and Oliver, I will definitely be getting to it in the next week. You are so sweet Zoe, thank you so much for your kind words :)

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  5. Most of these books are on my tbr! Emmy & Oliver got a lot of praises so I'm looking forward for it. Love Fortunes and Other Disasters sounds cute. Hope you enjoy it! :)

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    1. I know, I've seen so many people talking about how much they loved Emmy and Oliver, which makes me want to read it so badly! I just love the cover for Love Fortunes and Other Disasters, its so adorable. thanks for stopping by!

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  6. Great books!
    I've been waiting for so long now to read The Kiss of Deception and I can't believe the second book is out now.
    Tiny Pretty Things was really good and Every Last Word was fantastic. I hoe you like them both!
    And I really want to pick up Nimona and I Am Princess X because I want to try to read more graphic novels and stuff and they both look really good.
    Olivia @ Fluttering Pages

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    1. I know, seriously I'm going to read the kiss of deception and heart of betrayal in a row really soon! i just finished tiny pretty things, I really enjoyed it. I liked nimona a lot, and I'm looking forward to I am princess x, i wanted to try more graphic novels too. :)

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